Question Any guitar techs who are specialize in Ernie Balls?

[edcat]

I recently inquired about getting a Silo Special to sound like an Albert Lee (out of phase sound). Tried the AL itself but the neck always made my hand cramp. I'm looking for any guitar techs who know Ernie Balls inside out who could help me with this. Any recommendations of any Ball experts out there? Thanks.

 

[threeminutesboy]

Where are you located? coming out of the blue is bit hard for us to help

Maybe forumite Tommy in delaware can help you or Pete Dubaldo ? maybe even EBMM can do a pickup swap for you. you will have to ask Customer service for that.

 

[edcat]

I'm located in Buffalo(does the sun still exsist?)but would be willing to send it anywhere in the US.

 

[PeteDuBaldo]

I'm not sure what you mean by out of phase - The switching on both models is the same (parallel in positions 2 and 4), but they use different pickups. The Silo Special uses DiMarzio custom wound singles while the AL uses Duncan single coils. The bridge single on the AL has a metal plate below it, like the tele models. You could try swapping in a tele-style bridge pickup on the Silo Special, or buy an Albert Lee pickguard assembly from EB and swap the electronics into a Silo Special pickguard.

 

[Spudmurphy]

Yeah - what Pete said.

I'm surprised that you cannot get on with AL neck - I don't think its that disimilar to the Silo neck?

I'll check out my old thread on "neck Profiles" to check.

Edit here's the pictures - I guess it's a "tad" smaller but I guess if it's "not for you" then you are the only one that matters

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[threeminutesboy]

I'm not sure what you mean by out of phase - The switching on both models is the same (parallel in positions 2 and 4), but they use different pickups. The Silo Special uses DiMarzio custom wound singles while the AL uses Duncan single coils. The bridge single on the AL has a metal plate below it, like the tele models. You could try swapping in a tele-style bridge pickup on the Silo Special, or buy an Albert Lee pickguard assembly from EB and swap the electronics into a Silo Special pickguard.

silo special SSS also got a metal plate under the bridge pup

Yeah I think he is willing to have Seymour Duncan PUP in his silo spec, but keep in mind it's ash against alder in terms of wood

 

[tommyindelaware]

well if you still got an al..........you could swap the necks if its a silo special..

 

[John C]

Current AL necks are slightly deeper than current Silo Special necks from say 1st fret through 5th fret; by the time you get to the 12th fret they are pretty similar. I found the AL neck to be a tad too fat for chords but fine for single note runs further down the neck so I stick with the Silo Special.

Granted I've only demoed an AL with single coils (the one I owned had MM-90s) but I think an SSS Silo Special quacks pretty well in positions 2 and 4. Of course, I've never cared for position 2 on any HSS guitar; there is something about the dynamic of having the angled single coil in the bridge position that can't be duplicated with a split humbucker.

 

[edcat]

Pete, don't know if you remember but I bought a sparkle blue AL from you. It was beautiful but as slight a difference as the neck size was from the SS, my hand just cramped up every time I played it. I think it was the chunkiness down toward the nut as John C stated. I loved that guitar and it was a sad day when I had to sell it.
I did put the SS neck on the AL but it changed the sound noticeably with the out of phase position (between mid and bridge pups) sounding more like what I have now on the SS. By switching necks, I learned that the AL neck plays a big role in it's sound. They sure knew what they were doing. I'm thinking that buying the AL's Duncan pups and sending the guitar to someone who knows the sound would be my best bet.